TV networks are running out of excuses for the dwindling popularity of the National Football League.

They blamed the election for ratings declines last year, and hurricanes for a soft week one in September. Protests during the national anthem, and President Donald Trump’s criticism of the league, have faded from the headlines.

Advertisers are starting to believe a different explanation: the viewers aren’t coming back. Audiences are down an average 7 percent from a year ago through the first eight weeks of the season, excluding last Monday. That’s on top of a decrease of about 8 percent last season that spurred numerous changes in the broadcasts, from shorter commercials to better matchups earlier in the year.

“There’s just not as many people watching TV the way they used to watch TV,” said Jeremy Carey, managing director of Optimum Sports, a sports marketing agency. “It’s going to be an issue for advertisers when they can’t reach a large-scale audience the way they have.”

With CBS Corp., 21st Century Fox Inc. and Walt Disney Co. set to report earnings in the next few days, analysts are bound to raise questions. These companies have used the popularity of the games to extract additional fees from cable operators, promote other shows on their networks and sell lots of commercials. Pro football games drew about $3.5 billion in ad spending last year, including the postseason, according to SMI Media Inc.

Media companies have spent billions of dollars on the right to air football games, which had been immune to the erosion of viewership for other TV programming. Audiences for TV networks have diminished for years as the growing popularity of online alternatives Netflix and YouTube and the availability of most shows on-demand have reduced the appeal of dramas and comedies. Live TV, like sports, was supposed to be immune, but that theory looks highly questionable now.

Ratings for the NFL suggest the same societal trends are now affecting the league, even if the declines aren’t as dramatic. The drop in game viewership ranges from 5 percent for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” to 11 percent for the CBS Sunday package. “Monday Night Football,” on Disney’s ESPN, has attracted more fans this year than a year ago, but the numbers are still down from 2015.

Viewership of the four main broadcast networks fell 8.7 percent last year, and 12 percent among adults 18 to 49, an important demographic for advertisers.

CBS’s 11 percent slump for NFL games is the steepest of the networks. Its parent company, which reports earnings after the close Thursday, is more vulnerable than rivals to the trend because the vast majority of its earnings come from the broadcast network. The declines at CBS reinforce a complaint that has gotten louder and louder in recent weeks: The league got greedy in adding the Thursday night game on broadcast.

Reserving top games for Thursday night robbed other time periods of good match-ups. After a nosedive in ratings at “Monday Night Football” last season, the league has scheduled better games for that time period, further damaging Sunday afternoon.

“Ratings declines on both general entertainment and NFL programming could be the single biggest point of focus for investors this quarter, and we’re not sure what media companies can say about the health and tone of the ad market to assuage fears,” Steven Cahall, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note last month.

Viewership is dropping fast among people under 54 -- a key demographic for advertisers -- and even faster among those 18 to 34. Audiences for games on CBS, NBC and Fox have slid at least 10 percent among that younger cohort.

Advertisers aren’t abandoning the NFL, one of the only places they can still reach more than 10 million people at once. But they are growing concerned. John Schnatter, who appears in TV spots on behalf of his Papa John’s Pizza International Inc., laid into the league on a conference call this week, blaming the ratings for his company’s slow revenue growth and calling for the league to put an end to player protests.

Networks and other advertisers identify a wide range of reasons for the NFL’s struggles. The league has overexposed itself by making highlights available on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Snapchat. Identifiable stars like Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers have either retired or gotten hurt. The quality of play has deteriorated. Player protests and concussions have driven away some fans.

Some executives argue viewership of the league has still improved over the long term while dropping for every other show. Yet the amount of time people have spent watching football this season is at the lowest point since 2011, back when there were fewer televised games, according to Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports’ head of research.

“The cumulative effect of everything happening in the world at large is having an impact on NFL viewership,” Mulvihill said. “ The league was defying the laws of gravity.”

Might be due in part to the fact that the Broncos suck Kevin Spacey ass this season, but I'm missing more games and just checking scores after the games are over. Turns out that I've seen enough football to know what it looks like without watching a game as it's happening.

I'm not pissed. I'm not protesting. I'm not boycotting. I'm just a little bored by the NFL's current interpretation of football.

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*If you are reading the post above in the Lounge, it is not intended to be political bullshit.

"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth ..."
– Pope Saint John Paul II

1. Get rid of Thursday night games. They're generally horrible and not worth watching. And unless it's my team playing in it....I'm not rushing home right after work to turn on the TV and watch football on a Thursday night.

2. Bring back NFL Europe. The NFL is in dire need of a developmental league that allows these players to transition from the college level to the pros.

3. Offer team packages to fans. Want to watch all of your teams games? Pay $125-$150 a season and we'll allow you to stream them on NFL.com every week.

4. Most importantly....fix the way penalties are called. It's pretty bad when even the most casual fan can watch a game and call out the refs for bullshit penalties or blatant penalties that aren't called.

And yet the Chiefs ratings are up this year more than 5%, bucking the national trend.

The reason for the decline in ratings is as follows:

1. 2014 was the NFL's ratings peak and most insiders knew that the decline was going to happen at some point in the near future.

2. Mobile watching is a real factor. Twitter paid $50 million to stream Thursday night games last year, Amazon paid $50 million this year. Verizon offers every NFL game via their service so people are watching on phones and tablets.

3. Streaming, illegal and legal, has taken a chunk of viewers from traditional watching to new age.

4. Red Zone TV is a huge factor. Why watch a single game when you can watch scoring plays as they happen?

5. NFL Game Mix: Similar to above. When the Chiefs aren't playing, I'll generally have Game Mix on with the sound muted so I can keep an eye on all of the day's action.

6. Bad big market/popular teams. It's no secret that when the Giants, Jets, Cowboys, Redskins and Packers suck, the ratings are down. The Chargers ratings are abysmal and aren't even being counted. The Bay Area's ratings are off as well, which shouldn't be surprising when they host 0-8 and 3-4 teams.

Mobile and streaming numbers aren't included in the Nielsen ratings, which definitely accounts for more than a few percent. Until Nielson or some other company can track streams, the ratings will likely be off.

But again, the sky isn't falling. There isn't a single program that can haul 20+ million viewers per episode these days, let alone, 26 million, as some NFL games have this season.

Might be due in part to the fact that the Broncos suck Kevin Spacey ass this season, but I'm missing more games and just checking scores after the games are over. Turns out that I've seen enough football to know what it looks like without watching a game as it's happening.

I'm not pissed. I'm not protesting. I'm not boycotting. I'm just a little bored by the NFL's current interpretation of football.

Yeah, the amount of non-Chiefs games I am watching has been declining steadily the last few years for basically this reason.

Working in advertising, I know that TV viewership is down across the board. It's not just the NFL. Advertisers aren't willing to shell out the cash on big TV campaigns like they were 5 or 6 years ago...it's a dying medium.

The fact that the NFL continues to be perplexed by their declining ratings is comical to me. The funny part is that, while fewer people are probably watching football today than 5 or 6 years ago...it's not as drastic as the ratings may show. I don't watch games on TV. I stream them, and so do millions of others on a weekly basis. I don't even HAVE cable anymore.

Until they figure out how to start accounting for streaming, they'll never truly know what their viewership numbers are. And even then, figuring out how to advertise to a streaming audience that isn't paying attention, uses ad blockers, etc. is an entirely different issue.

Seems like it'd be easier to accurately gauge viewer numbers with internet streaming than with the stupid Nielsen tv ratings system. I know myself along with my family members have always had cable or satellite since the 80s. Until a couple years ago. Now we all cut it off and just watch stuff online or an HD antenna for local broadcasts.

I don't have an issue with the idea of a Thursday night game but the execution is poor because the players aren't rested.

After the initial Thursday Night game to kick off the season, the NFL should introduce Thursday night games Week 5 and feature teams that are coming off their Bye Week. That way, players will be well rested coming into the Thursday night game and have additional days off until their next Sunday game.

Also, **** having shitty teams on Thursday Night. If the NFL wants to improve their ratings, only 1st and 2nd place teams from the prior season should be featured on Thursday night.

Nobody wants to sit through Tennessee vs. Jacksonville or in last night's case, Buffalo vs. the Jets.

I haven't watched a single game all year that didn't have the Chiefs playing in it, and I haven't even watched all of them in their entirety. It has nothing to do with my TV viewing habits and everything to do with it being an uninteresting shit product.

I don't have an issue with the idea of a Thursday night game but the execution is poor because the players aren't rested.

After the initial Thursday Night game to kick off the season, the NFL should introduce Thursday night games Week 5 and feature teams that are coming off their Bye Week. That way, players will be well rested coming into the Thursday night game and have additional days off until their next Sunday game.

Also, **** having shitty teams on Thursday Night. If the NFL wants to improve their ratings, only 1st and 2nd place teams from the prior season should be featured on Thursday night.

Nobody wants to sit through Tennessee vs. Jacksonville or in last night's case, Buffalo vs. the Jets.

I don't have an issue with the idea of a Thursday night game but the execution is poor because the players aren't rested.

After the initial Thursday Night game to kick off the season, the NFL should introduce Thursday night games Week 5 and feature teams that are coming off their Bye Week. That way, players will be well rested coming into the Thursday night game and have additional days off until their next Sunday game.

Also, **** having shitty teams on Thursday Night. If the NFL wants to improve their ratings, only 1st and 2nd place teams from the prior season should be featured on Thursday night.

Nobody wants to sit through Tennessee vs. Jacksonville or in last night's case, Buffalo vs. the Jets.

Boring.

Putting premier matchups on Thursday nights screws FOX and CBS out of their best Sunday games, and it also screws the fans.

Only an opinion, but I began watching the NFL when they first began broadcasting games. Folks back then LOVED the idea of football on TV. Then, along came Monday Night Football and it was GREAT!!

Then came Sunday NIGHT Football and then Thursday night football. Honest to god - I think that one of the prime reasons for the drop in viewership is "overkill".

The game has changed over the years as well. Now? there are 100 flags during a game. This isn't allowed, that isn't allowed. This hit is "bad" while this hit is OK.

There are FAR too many commercials during the average game. I get the idea that sponsors want the commercial time but holy shit!

Cable and Satellite services are being dropped at a phenomenal rate. People just can't afford $200 a month for television. Hell, we dropped DirecTv a couple of months ago and STILL haven't missed a Chiefs game (which, coincidentally, is the only game I watch these days).

People have attributed the loss of viewership to the protests and I think, that to a certain extent, they may be right. Football to many was the last bastion of "'Murica!" and now, it seems to many like even that is going by the way. So, I'm sure that there is that segment of society that said "to hell with the NFL" and moved on to something else.